Slope stability issue in Pulpit Rock parking lot slides down on the regional district
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
A slope stability issue at the base of Pulpit Rock trail has the regional district making moves to shore up the situation.
The creation of a parking lot at the base of the trail last year — cutting into the side of the mountain — has slightly eroded the ability of the slope to stay put.
Regional District of Central Kootenay general manager of community services, Joe Chirico, said there had been at least one rock (small size) come off the slope and hit a parked car.
And that one reported incident was enough, he said. Likely there will be another tier of concrete blocks added to the ones that now exist to hold back any other material that wishes to leave the steep grade of the trailhead.
“Whenever you have something sitting for a long period of time up against the bank, you are going to have possibilities of something coming down,” he said.
This was the first incident ever reported at the site.
Joining the brotherhood
The RDCK is also in negotiations with the Friends of Pulpit Rock Society, to ratify what their formal relationship is with them in terms of trail maintenance.
Pulpit Rock Trail is a funny piece, said Chirico. The regional district owns the first 200 metres of the trail and the parking lot, but the rest of it is on Crown land and, therefore, is the jurisdiction of the Province of BC.
“We’re just trying to find a way to find a formal way to recognize the Trails Society … and then sign off on the legalities,” he said.
They are looking at different models from across the province to provide a framework of how a volunteer group could provide maintenance.
